WMO signs cooperation agreement with UN Climate Change

WMO signs cooperation agreement with UN Climate Change

Published

10 November 2017

The World Meteorological Organization has signed an agreement with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) secretariat to boost cooperation in a number of important areas. These include research and evidence to support climate policy-making and climate-smart investment, and technical cooperation to improve climate products and services for mitigation and adaptation action.

WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas and UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the opening day of the UN climate change negotiations in Bonn, Germany.

WMO has been consistently strengthening its support for the UNFCCC process. The new agreement establishes the legal and institutional basis for the cooperation. The signing ceremony followed the presentation of WMO’s provisional statement on the state of the climate in 2017 by Mr Taalas at the opening session of the climate change negotiations in Bonn, COP23.

The agreement provides a framework for strategic collaboration between the UN Climate Change secretariat and WMO in the areas of mitigation, adaptation and awareness raising with respect to:

Communication campaigns that improve understanding of, and motivate action on climate change and sustainable development priorities;

Strengthened climate change leadership and engagement at the global, regional and national levels;

Strengthened collaboration related to global and region-specific frameworks and mechanisms, including on capacity-building at the regional and national levels;

Research and evidence to support climate policy-making and climate smart investment, through science, data, information and knowledge;

Technical cooperation related to data, tools and methods to improve climate products and services and their access for mitigation and adaptation action.

The agreement will be complemented by several "component project" annexes currently in preparation. These identify specific areas of cooperation and associated deliverables, related to:

WMO’s Annual Statements on the State of the Climate, and Greenhouse Gas Bulletin reports which are submitted to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice, and underpinning indicators;

The Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System currently under development by WMO and partners; and